The recent cancellation of the annual Canadian University Science Games has deprived U of T’s team of a chance to compete with other scientifically-minded undergraduates across the nation. But the team rose above this latest disappointment with a miniature version of the games.

“This year’s competition was supposed to be held at Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier,” said Josh Ramjist, president of the human biology students’ union and the U of T’s CUSG coordinator. “About mid-November, [the CUSG] website was changed to say that due to unforeseen circumstances, the games have to be cancelled for this upcoming January.”

The four-day event was cancelled because of the CUSG corporation’s failure to secure insurance and adequate funding for the games.

“The two deans at Waterloo and Laurier couldn’t agree on who would actually hold the liability for [the games],” said Ramjist, a problem that resulted in the loss of academic support as well.

Moving the games to Toronto in one month didn’t work for the Toronto arm of CUSG.

“The logistics of just trying to find housing for them, let alone a venue for each challenge, was too much,” explained Ramjist. The games hosted 180 students from nine universities last year, and this year expected 15 teams and about 400 students.

“We have this group of 30 U of T students who are highly motivated and super enthusiastic. There must be something we can do with them,” said Ramjist. “So we thought, let’s hold our own science games.”

U of T’s version of the “science Olympics” will be geared towards high school students, using the same events as the CUSG but over the course of a single Saturday. The format and logistics of the mini-games are currently being discussed by the U of T CUSG team.

The Toronto team hopes to maintain the faithful support it’s had from the faculties of arts and science and of medicine. The cancellation of the CUSG threatens this support and the existence of future teams.

“[The games have] decreased in popularity, perhaps even in advertising, it’s decreased,” Ramjist lamented. “But this is the first year it’s officially just not happened.”